Five Turkish fighter jets staged surveillance flights on Monday over Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq, a military source told AFP.

The F-16s took off from their base in Kurdish-majority Diyarbakir province and flew over outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq, the source added.

It was not immediately clear why the flights were conducted.

The mission comes after jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan called last week for PKK fighters to lay down their arms and withdraw from Turkish territory after clandestine peace talks with the country's secret service.

The PKK, branded a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, has bases in the Kandil mountains in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The renewed push for peace is aimed at ending the 29-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule that has cost some 45,000 lives, mostly Kurds.